Mixed Blessings
by Darkened Mirrors
Summary: Dark and Shadow are each 5000 dollars in debt when they find their angels' eggs. Is it dumb? Yes. Is it luck? Yes. Is it fate? Maybe...
1. Late

All right, so this fic was written by both of us. With the exception of this first chapter, that is. Be kind, people, this is our first joint fic/account. Savvy?

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

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"Late! I hate being late!"

Angrily, a young man with dark violet hair ran through the streets of Domino, his beat up tan backpack swinging heavily from one shoulder. His brown shoes clomped heavily as he made a mad dash through the sidewalk, skidding on parts where he had to turn corners. "Heh! I just might make it…"

"You there! Stop!"

"S-s-shi-i-i-i-t!" Pushing his legs harder, the man gripped his backpack tighter as he pushed over a trash can to slow his pursuers. Behind him, a bald salesman and a cop were hot in pursuit.

"Damn, that kid can run!"

"Well I should say so! This is the fifth time he's stolen something from my store! It's not like he hasn't had practice running from me!"

"Sir! Watch out for that trash-!"

CRASH

Gleefully, the man turned to look back as the salesman brushed a plastic coffee lid from his head. "Thanks for the merchandise, sir! It'll make me about sixty dollars or more depending on how many suckers like you I can find!"

Ignoring the menacing threats and curses from the two men behind him, the thief grinned as his bright blue eyes turned to the freedom ahead of him.

Nothing more to worry about now. You got what you came for and everything was going to be ok.

Finally able to stop and rest, the man let his backpack drag off his shoulder and onto the ground.

_Now…let's see…what can I sell today?_

"Angel Clothing! I've got clothing for your angel! Any type of occasion, marriage, school, or…whatever! I've got it!"

Grinning like a fool, the man held out a packet of clothing to a woman who was walking by. "Care to buy some Angel clothing for your daughter, ma'am?"

Displeased eyes glared back. "No thank you, sir-…"

"My name is Darren, ma'am."

A short pause for a look of disgust. "Darren. There is no way I would ever buy stolen merchandise from a thief like you. Get an honest job, why don't you? And it would interest you to know that I have a son."

Darren smiled, his expression undeterred by the harsh words. "Guys play Angelic Layer too, ma'am," he said, keeping his polite tone.

Desperately, the woman looked around for an answer that wasn't there. "Well…I don't want any! Leave me alone!"

Taking the exclamation as a farewell, Darren shrugged and waved goodbye. "Maybe next time, then!" he called to the lady, who had turned and walked briskly away. "Well, that makes thirty five dollars total today. Not bad for a days work if I do say so myself."

"Say yourself what?"

Turning at the new voice behind him, Darren smiled. "Hey! Sean! How's it going?"

A hiss sped its way out of the new mouth. "Shut up, Dark!" a man in his late teens snarled as he brushed shoulder length hair from his brown eyes. "It's almost night now. You're supposed to call me by my other name."

"What? Oh yeah. Sorry, Shadow," Darren whispered happily. "I knew that."

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did…infinity!"

Letting a heavy sigh escape him, Sean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Did you at least make some cash?"

Darren smiled and held out the money in Sean's face. "Yeah, I made about-!"

"S-shut up!" Sean growled as he smacked Darren's hand down and covered him mouth with his own hand. "Do you wanna attract someone? Keep it down! Now come on…we're late."

"I know, I know." Dark sighed, grinning as he put the money in his pocket and followed his friend down a dark alley. "You know, this alley always makes me feel so mysterious. Into the dark alley the two heroes began their journey, never suspecting the danger that awaited them in the gloom of the night."

"…Are you quite done?"

"…NO. As they blah blah blah…"

"Good god…"

Traveling further into the darkness, the two paused in front of a rusting iron door. Knocking three times, Shadow stepped back from the door as a small opening slide in the top opened itself and a pair of hard cold eyes filled the gap.

"State the password."

"Sonia."

Instantly, the iron door opened and revealed a dark hallway with a heavy muscular guard, armed with an automatic rifle. Stepping inside, Shadow bent his head to avoid eye contact with the guard and quickly walked by him. Dark, on the other hand, happily smiled and waved before following his friend into the darkness.

After what seemed like miles of hallway, they finally reached a dimly lit room that only held a table with a lamp overhead, three dark figures hidden in the shadows, two beside one sitting in a very large fancy chair. Instantly a voice from the chair spoke, his voice hard and unforgiving.

"You're late."

Bowing his head, Shadow nodded. "Yes, sir, we're sorry. Dark was running a bit behind."

Dark grinned and waved.

The figure paid no heed to Dark as he turned his attention to Shadow. "Did you get the money?"

Instantly, Shadow nudged Dark, who put his thirty five dollars on the table followed by Shadow, who placed a hundred.

Staring at the money, the figure fell silent as Shadow glared at Dark. "That was all you could get?" he growled angrily at his friend who sighed and shook his head.

"People in this area are starting to get to know my…our line of business. It's getting harder to both steal and sell. What do you want from me?"

"How about more money so we won't have to be here any longer than we have to be?" Shadow hissed back.

Suddenly, the figure stood, his guards reaching for their sides. "Are you saying that you don't want to be in my presence anymore Shadow?" he asked a hiss in his voice.

Immediately, Shadow raised his hands in his defense and shook his head. "Ah…that's not what I meant at all! I just mean that …Dark's really hungry and we should get him some food before he starts to whine."

A sharp and sudden elbow jab gave Dark his cue as he whined softly for more emphasis.

Calmly, the figure sat down again and the guards relaxed. "I expect more next time. Since you two are the best thieves I currently have, I'll give you a second chance."

Dark blinked, confused.

"Two?" he echoed. "What happened to the other five?"

A flash of teeth could be seen from the shadows as the figure leaned on his arm and tilted his head. "Use your imagination. Now get me the money next time or else you'll find yourselves joining them."

No more words had to be said as Dark and Shadow were grabbed from behind and tossed out the door.

"Good grief," Dark said as Shadow helped him up. "You'd think he knew we could just walk out the door."

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R and R!


	2. Wild Angels

DISCLAIMER: We own nothing.

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"Well, that's just great," Shadow snapped, standing irritably. "So now we need 5000 dollars, or else a lot of energy and a good head start."

"Well, that's okay," Dark smiled. "Why don't we just go home for now?"

"Yes…" Shadow sighed, stretching. "Let's go home."

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Shadow stood outside the Piffle Princess, contemplating it coolly. He glanced at the sack on his back, then considered his shoulder length black hair in the store's window.

"Damn, this is irritating. Maybe I should grow it out."

But, no time for that Pausing only to adjust his bag (and his smile), he neatly slipped through the door, past the oblivious owner (yeah, the one who was just opening shop) and into the back room.

Jackpot.

Smirking very slightly at the shopkeeper's dumpy figure, he set about filling up the sack, keeping an eye on the door all the time. Well, the shopkeeper didn't notice a thing, but his dog sure did.

"Hey! Hey, you rotten little thief!"

With a turn of speed surprising in one so wide of girth, the shopkeeper was thundering towards Shadow. Quickly, Shadow raised the window and jumped out, into the neighboring alley, and ran for it. Standing and fighting was all very well but not when there was potentially money to be had, and also a gigantic dog on his heels. Pausing only briefly to turn around, Shadow flashed an impudent grin at the flagging shopkeeper.

"Nice doing business with you, fatso!"

The dog's bark reminded him of something only slightly important: his life. Quickly, he took off, still grinning to himself. He lost the shopkeeper, he lost the dog, and he had turned onto a path that bordered a canal and was dashing for sweet freedom when his foot connected with a hard, rotund object and he went crashing to the hard concrete.

"Oh, fucking hell!"

Cursing and wincing as he rubbed a very sore back, he turned to glare at the object over which he had tripped. And stared.

"An…egg…?"

An egg. Oh, the humiliation…still, it might be worth something. He reached over and picked it up, then stood, examining the shell, which was clear, with a yellow band around it and two wings protruding from its sides.

"Oh, so you're an angel egg."

He sighed, tossing it up and down a few times, then headed off again.

"Okay, so let's see if we can sell you and not raise any suspicions."

With another sigh, he started walking. Unfortunately for him and his little plan, however, he then proceeded to trip over a loose bit of pavement and drop the egg, which fell into the canal.

"SHIT! I WAS GOING TO EAT OFF OF YOU, YOU KNOW!"

All the curses in the world, however, would not bring back his potential money. With a pop, the egg split open and out came a blank, hairless, faceless doll, which bobbed to the surface of the water.

"Well, that's just great. Now I've got myself an angel."

Selling it as it was never occurred to him and he picked it up out of the water, tucking it into a pocket.

Life was incredibly cruel.

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Meanwhile, Dark was in his own little world as he happily walked to the store he was going to heist despite the heavy rain running down from the sky. "Yep! Just another day and another store! Hahahaha!" As his laughter died, Dark paused to stare at a group of kids comparing their angels with each other under the shelter of an awning.

"My angel is better than yours!"

"No, mine is!"

"You're both wrong. You both know that my angel could kick your ass down the street and two blocks over."

Turning away from the kids as they continued to fight, Dark sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Ah, children today. What a mess this world is." Shifting his backpack over to his other shoulder, he continued on his way towards the Piffle Princess located in the district he was in. He would meet up with Shadow later after selling whatever he could out of whatever he stole. Sometimes he couldn't sell all of his stolen goods. In those rare cases, he would just drop them off at the store before the storeowner arrived the next day.

At least, in some small way, he wasn't being a bad thief.

"That's right! A thief of justice and truth!" he exclaimed, happily pounding a fist into the air. "Or…something like that."

Finally arriving at his target, Dark paused to take a deep breath before putting his hand on the knob. Then, turning it slowly, he muttered to himself what he always said before a theft.

"They're just a huge corporation. They're not going to miss what I take."

Stepping inside, Dark plastered on his big smile. "Hello! Don't mind me, I'm just browsing."

Thus began the plan. Get in, take what you could, and then get out. Simple.

Right?

"Oh, hello, son. What can I get for you today?"

Blinking in surprise, Dark stared down an old man standing behind a counter containing all the angelic layer items in the store. "Uh…"

Peering through one eye behind a pair of half-circle glasses, the store keeper smiled and patted his counter. "Don't be shy, son. Come on in. Whatever you need, I probably got. Ha ha ha. Say, have you heard of angelic layer?"

Dark nodded as he stepped up the counter. There was no way he would be able to take anything from this man now. And also…

"You're really old."

Laughing with amusement, the shop keeper patted his balding head. "Yes, I suppose so," he said calmly. "Time changes me and everything around, you know? Sooner or later, son, time will start to change you. For the better, I hope. But to business. Did you need anything?"

Sighing, Dark shook his head. "No…Not really," he said sadly. "I kind of wanted some angelic layer things, but you know. The whole thing about guys and how they don't really play and all."

"Hm?" The old man raised an eyebrow. "Now, that's not true, son. You know it isn't. Don't you like angelic layer?"

"Angelic layer is my way of life," Dark replied happily. "But my friends…"

"They make fun of you, eh?" the old man said. "Ah…hey come here for a minute." As Dark stepped up to the counter, the old man bent over and when he returned, he presented Dark with an old model of-

"A…An angel egg?"

The old man smiled and pushed the egg towards him. "That's right," he said. "It's an old version of an angel. No one's bought this egg for a long time now. I've about given up hope. But if you want, you can have it for free."

Instantly, Dark shook his head and waved his hands. "No, I couldn't."

"Oh, come on. You know you want it. Just make sure you open it in lots of water. And here. I'll ever give you the laptop needed for it." Pushing over a small blue laptop with the words "Angelic Layer" printed across it, the store keeper smiled at Dark.

"Ok!"

Taking the egg with care in his hands, Dark smiled shyly as he bowed to the storekeeper.

"Thank you very much!" he called as he waved and headed for the door. "I promise I won't let you down!"

As he ran out the door and down the street, he noticed it was raining harder. "It just won't let up, will it?" he asked as he stared up at the sky.

He never saw the soda bottle in the middle of the sidewalk.

"AIEEEE!"

THUMP

CRACK!

Time seemed to freeze as Dark stared up from the cement. A little bit of rain was NOT "lots of water". Picking himself up, Dark slowly headed towards the faceless angel as it lay on the ground, the rain pouring down its body and face, its limbs spread out in all directions. Beside it and in several other places shattered pieces of egg lay strewn about. The shell never had a chance.

"So much for not letting him down."

Sighing heavily, Dark picked up his angel. "I'm sorry. I'll get you in water as fast as I can."

And with that, he took off down the street, angel in hands and laptop under his arm, leaving his empty backpack and shattered shell pieces behind.

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R and R!


	3. Blessed

DISCLAIMER: Despite the ridiculous resemblance to Angelic Layer and a rather obscure Yu-Gi-Oh! reference, we own nothing. Savvy?

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Shadow was in the kitchen of their dark apartment in a rather bad mood, rooting around for food, when the front door opened and Dark thundered in, dumped the laptop on the couch, grabbed a nearby pot, filled it with water.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Someone's in a happy mood," Dark observed. "I'm just making sure my new angel gets its prescribed dose of water."

Quickly, he pulled the angel out of his pocket, dumping it into the pot, then set the pot on the counter. Shadow sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Okay, so you tripped over one too, huh?"

"Actually, no, some old dude gave it to me."

"I see."

"You do? Great. What are we doing about hair and stuff?"

"Unsold merchandise, I suppose. I've kept the stuff I didn't sell."

"Why didn't you return it?"

Shadow only gave Dark a pitying glance at this innocent question, then went into his room to get the things he had stolen, but hadn't managed to sell.

"Uh…Shadow, do you know how to use that stuff?"

"Shut up!" Dark found the door slamming on his face as Shadow tossed a bag out at him. "Shut up and work it out on your own!"

In the darkness of his room, however, Shadow was desperate.

"How do I use this? What do I do?"

He grabbed one of the hair pieces at random, trying to make it stick on the angel's head. He was lucky in that it automatically stuck. However, he wasn't quite so lucky on other fronts.

"Aw, man…of all the hair I could have chosen, why the hell'd I have to grab the _white_ one?"

Mentally kicking himself in the shins, he began to pick out clothes from those that lay scattered on the bed. Pretty. Yes, pretty, he wanted the outfit to at least look nice, not like spandex. And fairly easy to move in. Well hey, he had unwittingly grabbed the wrong hair, so he might as well make up for it _somehow._ Maybe he could make it look younger.

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark, where's the hair gel?"

"Wherever you left it, dear," came the not-so-serious reply from the kitchen, closely followed by hysterical laughter.

"You tell me where the hair gel is, woman!"

"Now _that_," Dark said, sobering, "is getting personal. Why do you want it? You never use it anyway."

"Well, my angel's going to be using it!"

"Bathroom, top drawer, far right."

Still muttering darkly to himself about smart-ass friends, Shadow made his way to the bathroom, located the hair gel, and retreated to his room, flicking on the light so that he could see well enough to style the angel's hair.

"That looks like Malik from…ah, I can never remember the name of that show," Dark said, coming up behind him. "The white hair and all. You've even cut it to the same length."

"Fine, then. I'll call her Marik, since she's a girl. Fair enough?"

"I suppose. Anyway, I'll be back. Toodles, dearie!"

Ducking to avoid a pillow thrown at his head, Dark quickly retreated back to the kitchen. Taking his angel out of the pot, he looked it over. "Kinda looks like an alien of some sort…" he said as he grabbed a dish towel and began to dry it off. "Oh well. Time to see what's in mystery bag number one!"

Opening the ziplock bag and dumping out an assortment of hair, Dark looked over the different colors that were presented to him. "Ok…this should be easy…first, picking out the hair. Now let's see…"

Shifting through the different colored hair, Dark picked one up.

"Too pink."

"Too blue."

"Too red."

"Too brown."

And thus this went on for some while until, "Hey! A purple one! Just like me! Hehehe!" Reaching for the hair and putting it on, Dark turned his head and shouted, "Hey Shadow! Guess which color hair I found!"

"Which one?"

"I got…uh…" Turning his head around, Dark stared at his angel. "Uh…"

"Well? Spit it out already!"

"…black…"

"…so original, aren't you?"

"SHUT UP!"

Sighing and turning to look at his angel, Dark lifted a strand of the long black hair. "Ah well. At least hair is hair," he said to himself as he pulled out a drawer and shuffled around for some scissors. "Now what kind of hair style? Hm…Maybe this…? Or this? Oh, I could make it really long! Then I could whack people with it!" Pausing for a minute with the scissors holding the hair at shoulder length, he turned to face Shadow's room. "Hey Shadow! Guess what?"

"What?"

"My angel's hair length is going to be really, REALLY-"

SNIP.

"'Really what', Dork?"

Dark stared at his angel, who now had straight shoulder length hair. "Really…short."

"…STOP CALLING ME!"

"Ok, ok! Yeesh! Grumpy! Someone needs a nappy poo!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! DO YOU EVER SHUT UP?"

"No."

"Right. I knew that."

Laughing as he turned back to his work, Dark grinned at his angel. "Well, at least it's something," he said as he picked up the scissors again. "Now how to do bangs? Maybe…uh…oh crap. I don't know…" Fumbling with his scissors, Dark twisted and turned, trying desperately to make bangs, but at the same time failing miserably. "…ok…I'm going to stop now before I can possibly make this any worse." The bangs he had created were unequal in length. The left side had one long strand of black hair down the right side of the face while the rest were shorter, ending in varying lengths to the eyebrow with one slightly longer strand of hair coming down the left side of the face. Stepping back and holding his angel out for him to see, he tilted his head and smiled. "It actually doesn't look half bad," he said to himself. "Maybe I should go show Shadow."

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BOTHERING ME!"

"Or not," Dark muttered. "Oh well. Now I guess I have to use that laptop thingy. Ok…no problem. I use technology all the time. No sweat. Except for the one time I blew up the microwave and the oven and the refrigerator all at once while trying to make a burrito."

"NO TECHNOLOGY, DARK!"

"…I didn't hear you!" Dark laughed as he jumped over the couch and landed next to the laptop. Setting it up with the chair as a makeshift coffee table, Dark plugged in the laptop and turned it on. Setting up a small platform with two rings hovering over it creating a golden glowing cylinder, Dark read the screen's instructions as he sat his angel next to him. "Place…the…angel…in…the…platform between the two rings. Ok. No problem." Gently lifting his angel and placing it in the golden cylinder, Dark smiled at it as it floated calmly. "Ok…now what does it say? 'Emphasize speed or strength…big or small'? Hm…" Looking over at his angel, Dark thought about it for a minute before an idea finally hit him. "I want it to be small…small like Shadow's always saying I am. And fast! So she can dodge anything! So…emphasis on speed…" Grabbing the mouse, Dark clicked the little meter that said, "Speed" until it wouldn't go up anymore. "There! That should do it!"

"DARK! ARE YOU BEING AN IDIOT?"

"…maybe not that fast. But still some speed." Taking the meter down a little more, Dark smiled. "Ok…now for a name…a name…" Looking at his angel and then looking outside, he smiled and carefully typed in:

R-A-I-N

Instantly, the cylinder began to glow and, as if by magic, the angel slowly formed itself a face and a human looking body. And finally, with a small "zeep", the eyes slowly opened to reveal aqua eyes and a small smile.

"All right! She's done! My angel is done!" Dark cried happily as he took her out and looked at her. "Wow…my own angel…"

"DARK! STOP BEING AN IDIOT!"

"OK, OK, FINE!" Dark yelled as he sat back down. Turning back to his angel, he smiled. "Rain…it's good to meet you."

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R and R!


End file.
